Boilers Advance to NCAA Women’s Golf Championships
Purdue moves on to the national tournament for the 18th time in program history
NORMAN, Okla. – The Purdue women’s golf team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in program history, sealing up a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Norman Regional on Wednesday. The Boilermakers shot four-over 292 in the final round, finishing two-over par for 54 holes and securing a trip to The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the national championships.
The No. 8 seed Boilermakers advance out of the Norman Regional with tournament champion and top-seeded Texas, which shot 10-under par for the week, No. 2 seed Wake Forest, third-seeded Florida, No. 4 seed Arizona State and No. 9 seed Ole Miss. Oklahoma’s Kaitlin Milligan and Arizona State’s Olivia Mehaffey shared medalist honors, with Milligan earning 1-of-3 individual bids to the national tournament. The other two individual qualifiers were Memphis’ Michaela Fletcher and Virginia Tech’s Amanda Hollandsworth.
The Boilermakers got off to a rough start Wednesday, shooting five-over par on their first few holes, but got into a groove and never looked back. Senior Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri dropped the first of 13 birdies for the team on No. 4, starting a run of 13 straight holes without a bogey on her card. She wrapped up even par for the day and two-under for the tournament, finishing tied for eighth in the individual standings.
Sophomore Inez Wanamarta bested Putri, shooting one-under 71 and dropping three birdies on the day, and junior Micaela Farah finished at two-over 74 on Wednesday, matching Wanamarta’s score of one-under par on the second half of the course. Freshman RuQing Guan had an outstanding finish to her round to turn in her first team score of the tournament, making birdie on three of the last five holes on the back nine and then sinking three pars on the front to finish the day. She improved her score every day of the tournament, coming in at three-over 75 for her final 18.
Farah was Purdue’s top individual finisher, tying for fifth at three-under 213 for 54 holes and posting the No. 3 all-time score for a Boilermaker at an NCAA Regional event. Putri was one shot back, tying for seventh at two-under 214, as the pair logged the 12th and 13th 54-hole scores of par or better this season for Purdue.
The NCAA Championships start Friday, May 17, and feature four rounds of stroke play before the national team title is determined via three rounds of match play.